“When in doubt, post a photo challenge.”
∞
Truth be told, it’s not that I’m uninspired to write anything new. It’s that upon reading the theme for this week’s photo challenge, I immediately thought of this picture. Being modest enough to recognize when inspiration has taken the lead and I should just shut up and follow her, even if I’m unsure of what exactly it is I’m doing, today’s post will be a photo post.
Of course, this picture not only relates to the theme of this week’s photo challenge, it also sits right smack in the middle of that other minor event of the coming week. Maybe that’s also why I thought of it so readily.
Big Brother lives here
I visited Salt Like City more out of coincidence than anything else. It just so happened that in early October of last year, I was trying to outrun the cold weather which had caught up with my road trip in Yellowstone. So if you take the nearest highway from Yellowstone National Park and head due south, guess where you end up ?
That’s right, Salt Lake City. Anyways, maybe it was from reading too many “Lucky Luke” comic books when I was a kid, but this whole idea of SLC was making me awfully curious. I mean, what’s all this about a salt lake, and even a salt desert ??! That’s pretty far out, you’ll have to admit. And that’s not even taking into account the Mormons.
Of course, in the end, I never actually went all the way to the salt flats. It would have been fun, but the extra drive proved too much for my enthusiasm over a vast expanse of flat, very very flat, white stuff. I would be extremely psyched up about going there if it had been “Speed Week” at the Bonneville Flats. But it wasn’t. So, you know, take out the quirky racing, and what are you left with ? Not much. Think ‘Le Mans’, outside of those 24 hours per year when things get interesting.
I did however spend a couple of days in the city. It was weird. Not extremely weird, just a little weird.
Everyone’s extremely friendly. That’s a sure sign of weirdness if there ever was one, isn’t it ? Also, it’s clean. I didn’t spot any litter in the streets, no gum stuck on the sidewalk, not a speck of dust in the air… OK, that might be a slight exaggeration.
Mostly though, it was subdued. And this was on a Saturday evening, in the heart of downtown. And yet, bars are now allowed to serve alcoholic beverages to anybody of drinking age, just like anywhere else. So why the quietness ? I can’t say I ever figured it out, but I do know this: whenever I was walking around the city centre, I’d catch regular glimpses of the towering office building of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints. And every time, I couldn’t help but think “Big Brother is watching you!”.
Seriously, that office building is imposing. This picture doesn’t actually show its size (the picture seemed much better in my memory…), but it is one massive block of straight-edged concrete geometry. Ergo, the photo challenge.
sometimetoulouse 